I've never heard the Proof Research name on the list of winning competition barrels.
@VLD Pilot , Then take a look at this article published almost two years ago. It shows that Proof barrels were the fastest growing in precision shooting market and their users were performing extremely well.
https://precisionrifleblog.com/2019/01/05/best-rifle-barrel-2/
Here's the applicable quote from the article.
PROOF Research was the second most popular barrel brand among these top shooters, at 15.7%. That is more than double the amount of shooters they had represented the last time I published the barrel stats, hinting at a growing consumer confidence in their product.
In fact, more top-10 shooters were using PROOF barrels than any other brand! They represented 50% of the top 10 shooters in the NRL, and 30% in the PRS.
When most people think of PROOF Research, they probably think of their carbon fiber barrels, but PROOF also produces traditional steel barrels – which is what 100% of these guys were running. I specifically asked all the guys running PROOF barrels if they were running a steel or carbon fiber barrel, and all of them were using steel barrels on their competition rifles, although a few of them said they run carbon fiber barrels on their hunting rifles.
Daniel Bertocchini, who finished 23rd overall in the PRS, explained it pretty well: "The main reason guys are running steel over carbon is the added weight for most PRS competitions, but there are benefits to running carbon over steel especially when shedding weight is a concern." In precision rifle competitions, weight is often seen as a good thing, and I'll touch more on why later in this article.
PROOF Research actually purchased Lawrence Rifle Barrels in 2012, to bring cut-rifle barrel making in-house for better control of consistency and lead times. Even their carbon fiber barrels have a steel barrel as the liner, and while the steel liner is fairly thin they'd still be safe to fire without the carbon fiber wrap. The carbon fiber is simply there to add more rigidity without adding much weight. Below is an example showing the comparison of a traditional steel barrel and an example of a carbon fiber wrapped barrel.
There are different approaches to carbon fiber barrel wraps used by different companies. I go into the science behind that in a chapter I contributed to Bryan Litz's most recent book,
Modern Advancements In Long Range Shooting Volume 2. I also put some carbon fiber barrels from PROOF Research and Christiansen Arms to the test to see how they compare to several traditional steel barrels of various contours, including a steel barrel from PROOF Research. I quantify group sizes, point of impact shift as the barrels heat up, overall barrel stiffness, and even measure how quickly the barrels heat up and cool off. It was the first large-scale study done on these kinds of barrels that I'm aware of, so if you're interested in this stuff you might
check that out.
